Hello Steemians! I'm going to create a few album posts of my instrument collection. First up is my Sitar :)
I first played Sitar in Rishikesh, India. My cousin and I found a teacher, and for 600 rupees (*roughly $10 USD) he gave us an hour long group lesson. We learned some basic concepts, like the Da and Ra strokes, and we played different strum patterns while running a scale. The instrument really spoke to me that day; it had many voices of its own. We could only "suggest" what notes to play; the Sitars had their own musical conversation.
When I returned to the US, I had to make Sitar part of my life. I found this lovely instrument on Craigslist in Los Angeles last year! It needed a bit of work to get in playing shape, so I reached out the LA Academy of Indian Music via Facebook. The man who responded offering help would later become my teacher.
I have now been studying Sitar for 4 months now under the incredible Rajib Karmakar. It has been a humbling experience - being an absolute novice again - but I have learned much about the instrument, Indian music, and my teacher as well.
I will leave you with a video of my teacher performing with violin and tablas, and I encourage you to listen to Sitar every day!
As always, please follow, upvote and resteem if you enjoy my content! I'm always happen to converse in the comment section as well :)
Ravi Shankar and John McLaughlin together is so exciting to see!
Cool instrument, thanks for the pictures.
The sitar is such a beautiful, expressive instrument.
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That looks interesting. I take it the frets are movable, like a mandolin?
I've never played a mandolin that had moveable frets (mine certainly doesn't), but yes - these are easily moveable!
Ha, It's been a long day! I meant to say a lute. They have movable frets for different tunings.
I'm attempting to teach myself classical guitar, at the moment. I wanted to learn tamboritzan, but they're hard to find in the US, and more of an ensemble instrument. :-)
Good luck with the sitar!
another very interesting instrument is the Oud